JP3020020U - Container-stacking device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (Corrected) [Purpose] Heavy containers can be automatically stacked on a trolley, etc., and the space is saved and the configuration is simple, eliminating 3K work and labor costs. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a container stacking device for reducing the work load, eliminating labor shortages, and improving work efficiency. [Structure] Two sets of endless chains 10 arranged in parallel while maintaining a space slightly wider than the side width of the container 6, hooks 12 attached at symmetrical positions at regular intervals of the chain 10, and the hooks 12 at predetermined positions. It is combined with a rotating mechanism that tilts up and down.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to an automatic stacking device for containers.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 Conventionally, in the collection work of resin containers (containers) used for storing agricultural products, it is customary to stack them in 3 or 6 layers for the purpose of space saving, and in that case, directly on the floor surface. Although depending on the application, such as stacking, stacking on a wooden pallet, or stacking on a trolley, the stacking work itself was mostly manual. Recently, automatic stacking devices and palletizing robots that can be stacked and arranged have become quite popular. However, in the case of a container for harvesting agricultural products as an example, the weight of the container is often 20 kg to 30 kg / 1 case, although there is a difference in water content depending on its contents. Since a large robot with a payload of 80 to 100 kg is required, the cost is high, and a safety fence is required outside the maximum arm movable range. There was also. In the case of the conventional automatic stacking equipment, the front and rear are configured as conveyors, and the individual containers sent from the previous process are stacked from bottom to top, and when the desired number of stages is reached, the subsequent process is continued. Although it has been devised and put into practical use as a method of sending it to the conveyor, it was still impossible to stack it directly on the transport cart on the floor ahead. Therefore, in the hand towel industry and the like, a great deal of labor was required because the work of stacking 5 to 6 stages of containers on a transportable truck was manually performed.

[0003]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 In order to eliminate these drawbacks of the prior art, the present invention makes it possible to automatically stack heavy containers on a trolley, etc., and also save space and simplify the configuration, eliminating 3K work and reducing labor. The objective is to provide a stacking device for containers to reduce costs, eliminate labor shortages, and improve work efficiency.

[0004]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention has two sets of endless chains arranged in parallel while keeping a space slightly wider than the lateral width of the container, a hook attached at symmetrical positions at regular intervals of the chain, and It is combined with a turning mechanism that tilts the hook up and down at a predetermined position. Further, the above rotating mechanism is composed of a hook pivotally attached to the bracket and a pawl pivotally attached to an arm fixed at a constant height, and the tip of the pawl comes into contact with the hook. It is also possible to have winding springs that return to the original state at each pivotal joint, and the elasticity of the winding spring of the pivotal joint of the hook is stronger than the elasticity of the winding spring of the pivotal joint of the claw. Further, a means has been adopted in which a hook tip portion slidably mounted on the hook body and a stopper can be provided on the upper surface of the hook tip portion.

[0005]

[Action]

 The device of the present invention is constructed as described above, and since the hook is attached to the chain and the rotating mechanism is present, the hook is locked to the rib of the container only while the containers are lifted and stacked. be able to. This rotating mechanism consists of a hook pivotally attached to the bracket and a pair of pawls pivotally attached to an arm fixed at a certain height, and the tips of the pair of pawls are attached to the hook. In the case of a structure in which the coil springs that are in contact with the left and right ends and are attached to each pivotal part are attached to the claws, the elasticity of the hooks is weaker than that of the claws when the left and right ends of the hooks contact the claws It descends and comes into contact with the rib of the container to lock it. When the chain further rises and the hook also rises accordingly, a force stronger than the elasticity of the claws is applied to repel the claws and the hooks lift the container. When a hook tip that is slidably mounted on the hook body and a stopper are provided on the upper surface of the hook tip, a hole for a handle is provided at the bottom of the side ribs of different size containers or containers. Even if there is something, it can be reliably abutted and locked on the container. In this way, unlike the conventional stacking device that stacks from the bottom to the top, the endless chain stacks the containers from the top to the bottom to form a portable cart on the floor. Can also be stacked automatically. Of course, this method is not limited to the portable truck on the floor, and it is also possible to stack it on the conveyor of another route and carry it to the next process.

[0006]

【Example】

 An embodiment of the device according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. However, the technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the wording of this embodiment and the scope of claims for utility model registration, and extends to an equal scope. FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of the principle of a stacking device of the prior art, FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of the principle of the stacking device of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a side view of a main part for explaining a hook mechanism, and FIG. 3 is a plan view of a main part of FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a front view of the main part of FIG. 3, and FIG. 6 is a side cross-sectional view showing a different hook tip part.

The operation principle of this device will be described in order. FIG. 1 shows an example of the stacking operation principle of the conventional method. First, the container 6 stopped by the stopper 2 is lifted up by the lifting device 3 (generally an air cylinder drive system), and the bottom surface is held on the upper surface of the fall prevention claw 4. By repeating this operation and stacking a predetermined number of stacks, the other end of the fall prevention claw 4 is pushed down by the pusher 5 to remove it, the stopper 2 is released, and the stopper 2 is discharged. The lifting device 3 can lift the bottom surface of the container 6, but since it is stacked on the conveyor, it cannot be transferred onto the truck on the floor.

FIG. 2 shows the operating principle of this device. When the container 6 arrives at the fixed stopper 9 at the forward end of the supply conveyor 7, the suspension hook 12 moored to the chain 10 traveling in the direction of the arrow (upward) is locked by the rib on the side of the container 6 Can be lifted up, sequentially moved in the direction of the arrow, and sequentially stacked on the transportable carriage 13 directly below the descending zone.

The principle of rotation of the suspension hook 12 is, as shown in FIG. 3 to FIG. 5, that the tip 14 of the hook normally faces upward and travels with a certain distance from the container 6, The hook 12 contacts the pawl 16 when the ribs 14 of the container 6 suspending the hook 6 with the hook 12 come close to each other. A pair of hooks 12 are pivotally attached via a fulcrum 18 to a lower portion of a support body 20 swingably suspended by a pin 19 at a tip end of a bracket 17 fixed to the chain 10. A winding spring 21 is attached to the fulcrum 18, and the elasticity of the winding spring 21 normally causes the hook 12 to face upward. The chain and hook connection mechanism does not necessarily have to have the above-described structure. The point is that the chain and hook are connected by some route and the hook rotates. However, the number of hooks is not limited. On the other hand, the pawl 16 is pivotally attached to the tip ends of a pair of left and right symmetrical arms 22 fixed to the main body 25 of the device via a fulcrum 23. Normally, due to the elasticity of the coil spring 24, it faces downward (horizontal direction in the drawing). The position of the arm is set to a height near the rib portion of the container-6, and the height of the arm may be changed depending on the shape of the container. As for the connection mechanism between the claw and the apparatus main body, it suffices that the claw rotates, and that the tip of the claw is in a positional relationship of contacting above the hook. The number of nails is not limited either. The elasticity of the coil spring at the hook pivot is stronger than that of the coil spring at the claw pivot.

When the hook 12 comes into contact with the pawl 16 and the hook 12 further tries to rise due to the pulling force of the chain, the elasticity of the pawl spring 24 is stronger than the elasticity of the hook spring 21 of the hook 12, so that the hook 12 is rotated. The stop plate 32 comes into contact with the back surface of the support 20 at the horizontal position and stops. When the hook 12 rises in this state, it comes into contact with the rib 14 of the container 6 and the container 6 is suspended by the pulling force of the chain 10. Then, as shown in FIG. 5, as the hook 12 is lifted, the hook 12 pushes up the pawl 16 against the elasticity of the winding spring 24 of the pawl 16 and passes through the space between the arms.

When the container 6 suspended by the hook 12 reaches the ascending point, the hook 12 becomes a locus drawing an arc along the chain sprocket 11, but the suspension hook rotatable pin 19 always causes the container 6 to move. You can move while holding the posture horizontally. Further, the chain descends, and when the containers 6 are stacked on the carriage 13, the hooks 12 separate from the containers 6 and are flipped up by the return elasticity of the winding spring 21. According to the present invention, the suspension hooks attached to the vertically circling chains are brought into contact with the lower portions of the ribs on both sides of each container thus sent from the conveyor in the preceding process to move the container upward. After it was lifted and raised by a predetermined stack height, it was horizontally conveyed backward (in the direction of advance of the pre-process conveyor), started descending from a position where it did not interfere with the rising container, and was placed at a predetermined position on the floor. Containers can be loaded onto a transportable trolley, and the second and subsequent containers can be similarly transported and stacked on the trolley in 5 or 6 tiers. When the stacking is completed by the predetermined number of stacks, the stacking is temporarily stopped, and the empty carriage and the stacking carriage are replaced manually or automatically.

In order to prevent the chain from swinging, a chain roller 27 is attached to the chain 10 via a plate 26 and is guided by a guide rail 29 fixed to the main body 25 of the apparatus. However, it is considered that the guide rail 29 that supports the chain roller 27 is not sufficient due to the load of the container 6 held by the suspension hook 12 when traveling in the upper horizontal zone. If so, the chain 10 can be prevented from twisting by the overhead traveling roller 28 and the rail that guides the upper surface. These chain rollers and guide rails can be mounted appropriately. In addition, the container 6 may not evenly distribute the load on both sides of the hook 12, and the container may lean toward the heavy side. Therefore, the guide rail for the container is also used for the purpose of keeping it at a slight inclination. You should consider erection. The guide rail can be attached flexibly by interposing a flexible spring rather than being fixed to the main body of the device (frame) so that it can be used for different container sizes. By the way, as a means to temporarily stop the device with an arbitrarily set number of stacks, a photoelectric sensor, etc., is placed at a certain stage, and when light is shielded for a set time or more, it is detected as stacked. You can also do it.

The hook shown in FIG. 6 is an application example in the case of adapting to different-sized and different-sized containers. However, the actual situation is that the size and shape differ slightly depending on the manufacturer. In a practical example, the minimum width and the maximum size of the rib to be supported by the suspension hook of this device are about 15 mm. Since the overlap between the hook and rib is usually only about 8-9 mm, it is not possible to securely support the container with a narrow width. Therefore, it is effective to make only the tip part (suspension part) 30 of the hook expandable. Some deformed containers have holes for the handle on the bottom surface of the rib.In this case, it is effective to provide a stopper 31 at the tip of the rib to prevent uneven support on the left and right. Is.

As described in the above-mentioned principle of operation, in the case of the stacking method of this device, the containers are intermittently stacked by the supply conveyor, but if the stacking is completed to the predetermined number of stacks, It is necessary to stop the temporary loading operation, discharge the stacking completed dolly and replace it with an empty dolly. This exchange may be automatic, but visually confirming whether the stacking is performed normally and whether or not the dolly and the container and the fitting part of the container are good or bad can prevent the accidental fall of the container after discharge. It is effective in doing. In addition, when stacking on portable carts, it is necessary to pay attention to the direction of the wheels of the carts. In general, all four wheels used for this type of bogie are free wheels (the direction can be changed in a narrow space). Therefore, if the empty bogie is inserted from the discharge side along the guide rails, the free wheels will move. Since the direction of is directed to the side opposite to the discharge side, it is necessary to have a gap that allows direction change after stacking. Therefore, it is desirable to make the guide rail movable at least on one side.

[0015]

[Effect of device]

 Since the device of the present invention has the above-described structure, unlike the conventional general stacking device that stacks from the bottom to the top, the stacking process from the top to the bottom allows the floor surface to It can also be stacked on a carrier. Of course, this method is not limited to a portable truck on the floor, and it is also possible to stack it on a conveyor of another route and carry it to the next process. Also, because of its relatively simple structure, it has practical advantages such as reduction of manufacturing cost, reduction of labor cost, and improvement of work efficiency.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of a conventional stacking device.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of the principle of the stacking device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a side view of an essential part for explaining a hook mechanism.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of an essential part of FIG.

5 is a front view of a main part of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a side sectional view showing a different hook tip portion.

[Explanation of symbols]

 6 Container-7 Supply Conveyor 9 Fixed Stopper-10 Chain 12 Hook 14 Rib 16 Claw 21 Winding Spring 24 Winding Spring 27 Chain Roller 28 Overhead Roller 29 Guide Rail 30 Hook Tip 31 Stopper-

Claims (3)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A set of two endless chains arranged side by side with a space slightly wider than the lateral width of the container, hooks attached at symmetrical positions at regular intervals of the chain, and tilting the hooks up and down at a predetermined position. A container stacking device characterized by being combined with a rotating mechanism for rotating. 2. The rotating mechanism according to claim 1, comprising a hook pivotally attached to the bracket and a pawl pivotally attached to an arm fixed at a constant height, the tip of the pawl. Is located at a distance to contact the hook, and a winding spring that returns to its original state is attached to each pivotally attached part, and the elasticity of the winding spring at the pivotally attached part of the hook is stronger than the elasticity of the winding spring at the pivotally attached part of the claw. A container stacking device. 3. The container stacking apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a hook tip portion slidably mounted on the hook body, and a stopper provided on an upper surface of the hook tip portion.